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The document asserts that private finance continues to bankroll the fossil fuel industry despite net-zero alliances, which have largely collapsed or been gutted due to industry backlash. It calls for regulators to mandate climate transition plans, exclude fossil fuel assets from central bank collateral frameworks, and pass legislation to choke off funding for fossil fuels. While some progress is noted in coal restrictions and specific European institutional investor pledges, the author maintains that binding regulation is essential to ensure private capital accelerates rather than obstructs the global energy transition.

The Private Equity Bankruptcy Tracker reports that private equity firms were involved in 54% of the largest U.S. corporate bankruptcies (liabilities $\ge$ $1 billion) and 51% of large bankruptcies (liabilities $\ge$ $500 million) in 2025. The report argues that the private equity model, characterized by leveraged buyouts and aggressive value extraction, increases bankruptcy risks, particularly in the manufacturing, healthcare, and consumer discretionary sectors. These financial failures led to at least 36,802 layoffs across 13 PE-backed bankruptcies in 2025 and disrupted essential services, such as healthcare. The document also notes a trend toward 'distressed exchanges' to circumvent formal bankruptcy, with PE-backed firms accounting for 41% of these events according to S&P Global data.

Reclaim Finance advocates for a revised SFDR framework (SFDR 2) to address confusion and greenwashing caused by the original 2019 regulation. The organization supports the exclusion of fossil fuel developers from sustainable and transition categories, calls for clearer criteria for 'transition' assets, and identifies inconsistencies in the European Commission's proposal regarding reporting obligations and fund claims.

The document argues that the original SFDR created confusion and enabled greenwashing due to a lack of clear minimum guarantees. It proposes that the revised 'SFDR 2' should exclude fossil fuel developers from all categories, establish stricter and clearer criteria for 'transition' assets, and resolve inconsistencies regarding reporting obligations for non-categorized funds to restore investor trust.

The policy brief addresses the lack of a shared vision for implementing Article 2.1(c) of the Paris Agreement, which calls for making financial flows consistent with climate goals. It argues that current efforts are fragmented and risks of greenwashing are high. The authors propose a Theory of Change (ToC) to link high-level goals to specific activities across regulators, financial entities, the real economy, and civil society. The document emphasizes that while Article 9 focuses on the provision of public climate finance from developed to developing nations, Article 2.1(c) requires systemic reforms—such as climate-related financial disclosures, taxonomies, and fiscal policy changes—to redirect the broader global financial system. It concludes with recommendations for the COP30 (CMA7) to adopt a structured work program based on this ToC to avoid circular discussions and ensure a just transition.

Reclaim Finance reports that asset managers are bypassing European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) guidelines on ESG fund naming to continue investing in fossil fuel developers. Analysis of 190 French-domiciled or managed funds shows nearly half changed names to avoid regulatory constraints. The document attributes these loopholes to lobbying by firms like BlackRock and Amundi and warns that similar gaps may be introduced into the revised Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR).

Reclaim Finance reports that asset managers are using regulatory loopholes in ESMA's fund-naming guidelines to avoid excluding fossil fuel investments while retaining ESG-related names. The organization highlights that major financial firms lobbied for less stringent criteria and warns that similar lobbying regarding the SFDR regulation could institutionalize greenwashing. Reclaim Finance demands a strict ban on investments in new fossil fuel projects for any fund claiming to be sustainable, ESG, or transition-focused.

The report argues that the financial sector's climate governance chain is fundamentally broken, as voluntary net-zero commitments by financial institutions and cooperative initiatives have failed to stop the flow of capital into fossil fuels. It introduces an "impact levers" framework to provide actor-specific recommendations for banks, asset managers, pension funds, and regulators to move from voluntary pledges toward enforceable standards and systemic accountability to support a Paris-aligned economy.

The R3Lab Toolkit is designed to help insurance regulators in Africa foster responsible innovation while maintaining consumer protection. It outlines a four-step process: conducting innovation gap assessments, utilizing a taxonomy of regulatory and supervisory tools, integrating these tools into concrete action plans, and monitoring progress via a key performance indicators (KPI) framework. The toolkit builds on R3Lab's initial assessments of innovation states and barriers across eight Sub-Saharan African countries.

In 2024, private equity-backed companies were overrepresented in U.S. corporate bankruptcies, particularly among large filings with liabilities exceeding $500 million. This trend is attributed to the private equity model's preference for short-term profit and the use of leveraged buyouts, which saddle companies with unsustainable debt. These bankruptcies led to at least 65,850 layoffs and significant disruptions in the healthcare and consumer sectors. The report also highlights the use of 'distressed exchanges' as an out-of-court restructuring tool and notes that private equity firms often remain profitable through management fees and dividends despite the collapse of their portfolio companies.

Reclaim Finance critiques the new ESMA guidelines adopted by the AMF for ESG fund naming, arguing they create unequal requirements that risk 'transitionwashing'. The organization urges that the 2025 revision of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) must mandate the exclusion of companies involved in fossil fuel expansion to ensure genuine sustainability and protect investors from misleading claims.

The document details the SFC's Circular Externa 015 of 2025, requiring financial entities in Colombia to identify, measure, control, and monitor environmental and social risks, including climate risks. It outlines the implementation timeline, the scope of applicable entities, and the conceptual framework for managing these risks within a financial institution's risk appetite and strategic planning.

The document argues that financial institutions shape the future economy and must implement ambitious, robust climate transition plans to avoid continuing destructive climate patterns. Reclaim Finance provides a framework of essential criteria for these plans, covering decarbonization goals, reporting, governance, biodiversity, and just transition, while identifying 'red lines' that signal major deficiencies in current financial transition planning.

The document asserts that despite early commitments in 2019, French financial actors continue to support coal companies, undermining France's international climate leadership. It highlights that between 2021 and 2023, the four largest French banks financed 26 problematic coal companies. The author argues that voluntary policies are insufficient and calls for a mandatory regulatory framework with clear definitions of excluded companies and deterrent sanctions to ensure a complete exit from both thermal and metallurgical coal.

Reclaim Finance identifies persistent financing of coal developers and companies without science-aligned exit dates by major French banks between 2021 and 2023, arguing that policy loopholes enable practices that may constitute greenwashing.

The policy brief examines the drivers of food insecurity in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), highlighting a 'ratchet effect' where domestic food prices remain high even as global prices fall. It attributes recent price spikes to agribusiness profiteering and financial speculation rather than supply shortages. To combat this, the author proposes the establishment of public buffer stocks, countercyclical interventions in commodity futures markets, stricter financial regulation of global commodity exchanges, and capital flow management to reduce currency volatility. The document specifically suggests that the South African G20 presidency could lead an expert review with the FAO and UNCTAD to stabilise global food prices.

The AMF's first public administrative agreement with Primonial Reim regarding sustainability communication failures is seen as a positive signal but insufficient to address systemic greenwashing in French sustainable funds. Reclaim Finance and other signatories call for the total exclusion of fossil fuel developers from sustainable funds and the application of immediate, systematic sanctions for non-compliance.

A coalition of environmental organizations, including Greenpeace and Reclaim Finance, responded to the French Senate's inquiry into TotalEnergies. While they welcome the report's critical assessment of TotalEnergies' "climaticide" strategy and its expansion of fossil fuels, they argue that the 33 recommendations lack the binding measures necessary to align the company with the Paris Agreement. The associations specifically criticize the absence of super-profit taxation and the perceived weakness of the French state in regulating the multinational.

A coalition of over 20 experts and NGOs has sent an open letter to the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) demanding an end to greenwashing in the French financial sector. The signatories highlight that a significant portion of funds claiming sustainability continue to finance fossil fuel expansion, arguing that current AMF supervision of extra-financial information is insufficient and lacks deterrent sanctions. They call for the systematic exclusion of companies developing new fossil fuel projects from sustainable or green funds and a revision of the AMF's doctrine on funds integrating extra-financial approaches.

The report argues that labelled transition finance is currently stalled by 'transition-washing'—where finance is provided to entities without a credible plan to reach net zero. It identifies root causes such as a lack of scientifically robust, geography-specific emissions pathways and the prevalence of non-binding voluntary standards. Using sustainability-linked bonds (SLBs) and Japanese transition-labelled bonds as case studies, the author highlights issues like unambitious targets, immaterial penalties, and reliance on non-credible technologies like ammonia co-firing. To address this, the report recommends six guardrails: preparing national Paris-aligned pathways, establishing robust classification standards, building external verification capacity, implementing mandatory regulatory thresholds for protected labels, empowering regulators to penalise transition-washing, and enacting systemic reforms such as mandating transition plans for large firms.